Glenoge

Standing Stone / Menhir

Glenoge (Standing Stone / Menhir) on The Modern Antiquarian, the UK & Ireland's most popular megalithic community website. 1 piece of folklore, 1 weblink, plus information on many more ancient sites nearby and across the UK & Ireland.

Folklore

This stone stands in the townland of Glenoge, parish of Grangeforth, on the farm of the late Mr. Dunne. The name is spelled variously. In the Field Name Book it is written Cloghstuckagh, and translated by O'Donovan as "Cloch Stucach, or Standing Stone"; in the Co. Carlow Ordnance Survey Sheets it is marked Glochstathagh, and locally it is called Cloughstodagh (cloch stadadh), the 'Five Fingers,' and the 'Giant Stone.'

The reference to the stone in the O.S. Letters is as follows:--

"A stone called Cloch Stucach stands on Mr. Dunne's farm in the townland of Glinnogue which tradition says was thrown by a giant [Finn Mac Cumhail] from Mount Leinster. There are indents on it which are said to be the tracks of his fingers."

The stone, which is a remarkable one, is flat on the south side and curved on the north. It is 5 1/4 feet in height and on the north side has five groovings or indents which bear a rough resemblance to the traces left by the fingers of a man's hand. The indent representing the longest finger is six feet in length, five inches wide and four inches deep; the others are in proportion.

An urn and a 6" 'bone needle' were found when Mr. Dunne dug around the stone.
From 'A group of grooved standing stones in North Carlow' by E O'Toole and G F Mitchell, in The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, v9 no2 (Jun 30th 1939).